


keep this love in a photograph

by annesbonny



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 3+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Photographer, Alternate Universe - Wedding Planner, F/F, Fluff, Wedding Fluff, Weddings, and the featured weddings, jinzula is the main the others are all background, photographer!jin, the things are all weddings, this is the softest thing i've ever written, wedding planner!azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annesbonny/pseuds/annesbonny
Summary: Azula doesn't believe in love. She plans weddings because the money's good, and because her friends are incapable of doing it themselves, apparently. Jin sees love everywhere she goes. She likes to wrap it up in beautiful photographs.The story of three weddings, and a soft epilogue.
Relationships: Azula/Jin (Avatar), Katara/Yue (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 63





	keep this love in a photograph

**Author's Note:**

  * For [egeria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/egeria/gifts).



> for connie, because you deserve it <3
> 
> disclaimer: i know fuck all about planning weddings and even less about photography.

Azula’s job isn’t easy. Doing anything else is unthinkable for her, but it’s never easy. It’s meetings, and haggling, and yelling at people over the phone, and keeping a straight face when people tell her the dumbest wedding ideas she's ever heard. 

Not _too_ straight, of course. She doesn't plan Straight People's weddings.

The first time she hears about Jin, she's knee deep in new photographer recommendations after her favourite photographer Song decides now is a perfectly excellent time to go on maternity leave. She's the top name and number on Song's list of trusted associates. Using an unknown for Yue's wedding is a bit of a risk - what with Yue being her closest friend, and all - but if Song trusts her…

“Shots Fired Photography, how can I help you?" 

The voice that answers the phone is lyrical. Professional, definitely, but oozing sweetness into the frankly ridiculous name of the business. The soft, soothing tone is one that Azula understands to be extremely helpful in the wedding business.

"Hello. Could I speak to Jin?" Azula says, cutting straight to it. She's not one to waste time with receptionists, even if she has no idea whether or not this Jin woman would even _have_ a receptionist.

"This is she," the voice, Jin, confirms. 

"My name is Azula Hiyama, I'm a wedding planner."

"I've heard of you."

There's a little flutter in Azula's chest. There _shouldn't_ be. Lots of people have heard of her. She's one of the most sought after planners in the city. 

"Wonderful," Azula continues smoothly, deciding she's quite capable of ignoring any flutters. "I have a business opportunity for you, if you have the availability?"

"I'm all ears."

🌸

The first trick Azula learned about wedding planning, was to always sit your photographer on one of your front tables. Not the one with the brides or grooms and the wedding party, of course, but one nearby. With bridesmaids or groomsmen or closest family-and-friends. That way they get their hot meal and the chance to rest that's in almost every decent, non-amateur contract - Azula's _not_ in the business of working with rookies or mistreating the people she hires - but they also get the necessary photos. 

Casual photographs of the wedding party enjoying the day. The ones of the adoring crowd. The all important speeches. Everything is within easy distance of those front tables. 

The only problem this ever presents is that Azula almost always recommends these tables are guests with plus ones, so the photographer, inevitably, is the odd one out. It's why Azula almost always sits herself at this table as well. Even at her best friend's wedding, when she could _feasibly_ be on the head table. She's not. She's under the canopy spread over the garden, with Jin sitting next to her, hand never more than an inch from her camera. 

Azula hadn't had the chance to meet Jin before today. She's seen a whole portfolio of her work, of course, but photographers rarely have photographs of themselves listed anywhere. 

The first thing Azula had thought that morning, bumping into her as she bounced between Yue and Katara's dressing rooms, was that this was a woman who could understand and appreciate Wedding Dress Codes.

The second was that she looked damn fine in that _suit._

"Hi," she said brightly, fingers toying with the strap on her camera bag. "I'm Jin... the photographer?"

Azula had eyed her critically, not allowing either of her previous thoughts to show on her face, before sticking out a hand with a perfectly sharp manicure. "Azula."

Jin had smiled so brightly then. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance at last, Miss Hiyama."

A pleasure indeed.

Photographers aren't exactly mesmerizing. There's nothing about the craft that should draw the casual onlooker in. But as Azula sits and pushes the last of her own meal around her plate - _spirits,_ if Yue and Katara hadn't picked an excellent menu - she can't help herself watching Jin.

Already, she has logged the telltale quirk of her lips just before she gets up or raises her camera to her eye, and there's the click of the shutter. Azula finds herself unwittingly fascinated; drawn in by that quirk and what it means. How does she _know,_ seconds before the photograph is taken, that it's going to be a good one? And they are good. Every now and then, she'll double check the picture, and the quirk turns into a full blown smirk before she'll lean over to show it to Azula. 

It's not gloating. Jin isn't fishing for compliments on her work, though even Azula wouldn't begrudge her them, it's just joy. Every picture she shares is an expression of joy. A child three tables over giggling at a joke he doesn't fully understand. Katara leaning over to whisper something in Yue's ear and the soft smile on her face that comes as a result. Azula's brother's stupid boyfriend slipping over right at the edge of the hall as he rushes back in and his speech notes go flying. The laughter on her brother's face when it happens. 

"Wedding photography," Jin explains to Azula as she too finished the rest of her food, "Is about finding the joy in what can be a very stressful day."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," she nods, "So many couples are worrying all day about details, but when they look back at their photos later, I just want them to remember how happy they made everyone. How much people love _love,_ you know?"

Azula raises an eyebrow, skeptical, and Jin catches it. 

"Well why do _you_ work in weddings, then, if not to bring people joy on one of the most stressful days of their life? Isn't wedding planning all about cutting stress?"

It is, but that's not why Azula does it. She enjoys weddings, yes. She enjoys that planning only same-sex weddings pisses off her stupid father who put her through business school only for this to be the business she started. She enjoys yelling at florists and bakers and anyone trying to overcharge her just because some idiot groom said the word "wedding" and almost had to pay double rates. Mostly, she thrives under the pressure of her job and gets a sense of satisfaction from never having had a wedding fail, but Azula has never really been into weddings just because she loves _love._

She's a child of divorce, she's allowed to be a cynic.

"It's just what I'm good at," she says evasively. “And Yue’s been my closest friend since I was fifteen, I could hardly refuse when she asked for my help.”

Jin laughs, it's a pretty sound musical like the rest of her voice. Then, over Azula's shoulder, she catches sight of something and reaches for her camera.

Azula turns her head too, but doesn't see whatever Jin does, but when she turns back she finds the lens of the camera pointed at her just as the shutter goes off. The result, Jin shows her, is soft around the edges. The soft swish of Azula's bangs framing her face, the slight part of her lips. Azula's pretty, she's not one for false modesty and pretending she isn't. 

But Jin makes her look beautiful, even off guard in a casual moment. 

🌸

"So how's your date?"

Azula frowns, brow creasing as Yue drapes her arms over her shoulders from behind. She doesn’t flinch at casual affection like this anymore, but she still goes tense under the arm wrapped around her. She puzzles internally over Yue’s words for a second "My-?” Then it _clicks._ “Yue she's the _photographer."_

Yue laughs, pulling back to slide into the now unoccupied seat next to Azula. On the dance floor, Katara is spinning her brother around happily. Azula keeps her eyes determinedly on that, rather than looking at Yue, lest a blush rise to her face and she gets caught in it. 

"What she _is,_ is your type,” Yue laughs, reaching out for the sparkling wine in the middle of the table and an unused glass. “Trust me, I would know."

"Why are you reminding me that we dated _once_ on your _wedding day."_ Azula rolls her eyes, raising her own glass to her lips. 

"I'm reminding you that I _know_ you," Yue laughs, "And that I know when you need a nudge. But Azula, honey, I promise that that photographer… she's _into_ you. Besides, doesn't everyone hook up at weddings?"

She purses her lips. Of all people, Azula knows that’s certainly true. "I'm still on the clock."

"Okay,” now it’s Yue’s turn to roll her eyes. “I signed your stupid contract, I know for a _fact_ you got off the clock half an hour ago."

As if determined to betray her, Azula’s gaze drifts over the dimmed room, in search of… ah, there it is. The click-and-flash of Jin’s camera, pointed at the revellers. She pushes a long, dark braid back over her shoulder as she straightens up again, the light of her camera screen barely lighting her face. 

Fine. She’s pretty. Whatever. Azula never claimed to be immune to pretty women. 

But the fact remains that even at her best friend’s wedding, she isn’t here to find a date. She doesn’t have the _time_ for romance right now. Besides, for all that Yue - smirking beside her as she realises where Azula’s gaze has strayed - knows her, she doesn’t know Jin. How could she possibly tell that-

_Flash._

The light sparks behind Azula’s eyes as she blinks in surprise, the white light fading in an instant, clearing to reveal Jin dropping the camera from where it's pointed at her again. Smirking across the room. 

Beside her, Yue just laughs.

Suki and Ty Lee's wedding is the most casual wedding Azula's ever planned. She's not even officially hired to help, but after the third time Suki asks to borrow one of her reference books for women's tailors, and Ty Lee sends her fifth wedding dress idea, she jots the important dates into her work diary along with the rest of her appointments.

They want a small affair. Tiny, really. Just six guests, seven when you count Aang who's also performing the ceremony, and a party - more like a gathering - in front of the beach cabin Suki inherited in her hometown. But one thing Ty Lee and Suki both agree they definitely need, after finally balancing out there one disagreement over colour scheme - turns out you _can_ make pink and green work in a non-awful way, which is a surprise to even Azula - is a photographer. 

Fortunately, she happens to know the perfect one for the job.

🌸

Jin doesn’t just wear suits, it transpires. When she shows up to Ty Lee and Suki’s beachside wedding wearing a casual blush pink number - oh spirits, are those _pockets?_ \- that is once again in perfect alignment with the vibe of the wedding while still being endearingly practical. How she managed this from the vaguest details Azula had been able to provide when she called to confirm she could do the job is a mystery. 

“You know, I like weddings like this,” Jin tells her, leaning in to whisper as Aang figures out which papers Ty Lee and Suki need to sign and where. Apparently the confused looks on everyone’s faces isn’t conducive to nice wedding photography. But the atmosphere as a whole is apparently Jin’s ideal wedding. “It’s nice. Peaceful. And I get proper time to spend with the couple.” 

Azula hums her agreement. 

“It’s certainly nicer than the last wedding I was at,” Azula remarks dryly, shuddering just a little. Jin’s eyebrow quirks up curiously. “Consider yourself lucky I didn’t hire you for that one. The _worst_ mother of the bride I’ve ever dealt with, and I’ve dealt with some _mothers.”_

“Oh?” Jin says, “Any fun stories to swap?”

"Well…"

After stories are shared and photographs finally taken, the sun dips below the horizon, and the wedding ceremony folds neatly, and entirely according to plan, into a dinner party. They used to have them so often, when they were younger. Before all of their lives got busy, but it's an easy routine to fall back into. Dishes being passed around and Suki's homemade summer rolls are as good as they always were. 

The singular addition is Jin. 

Weirdly, for the only employee present, she fits in well with their gang. Seated at Azula's left, she'll reach for her camera in the same way she did at Yue and Katara's wedding, but she chatters more too. It's when she makes fun of Zuko, funnily enough, that she teeters dangerously close to the edge of Azula wanting her to be a work acquaintance to Azula wanting Jin to be her actual friend.

If they notice the way she keeps staring at Jin, only to catch herself, her other friends say nothing.

It transpires she went to the same school Zuko used to, when he first moved to live with their uncle, and has plenty of riotous stories about someone who just _happens_ to be Zuko’s ex. Azula watches, a warm fondness kindling in her chest, as she smiles and laughs. Poking fun at Zuko who's already blushing a furious red as Sokka and Toph egg Jin on. Her friends like her too. 

Too?

Spirits, does _Azula_ like her?

No. Stupid. Of course she does. She’s known Jin for a year now, of course she likes her. In an entirely, one hundred percent professional way. Not like… not as in _like_ like. She’s not a grade schooler. She’s not her _brother._

But Jin fits right in, and her friends like her. And when Ty Lee drags them all down to the beach and gets Zuko to start a fire, and puts _Chong and the Nomads_ on her little speaker for them all to dance to, Jin is smiling. Snapping photographs, and laughing with Mai - how she got Mai to laugh is a mystery - and it’s oddly… peaceful. 

The peace isn’t broken even when there’s the bright flash of a camera somewhere to her left.

“Sorry,” Jin says, dropping it. The expression on her face doesn’t look sorry at all. 

“No, please,” Azula smirks, “Don’t let me stop you from doing your job.” 

“Well, in that case,” Jin raises the camera again, and the shutter clicks as she takes another photograph of Azula. Despite herself, she snorts with laughter.

“Aren’t you here to take photos of the brides?”

“I’m here to take photos of the _wedding,”_ Jin corrects, “And I’m an artist, I like capturing beautiful things.” 

_What?_

Jin is blushing, Azula realises belatedly because she’s too preoccupied with the heat that’s risen to her own cheeks. 

Azula’s not an idiot. She doesn’t _date,_ but she’s also plenty capable of recognising flirting for all that she’s utterly awful at doing it herself. She knows she’s _gaping_ back at Jin’s words, lost for what to say, and that that probably has something to do with the regretful expression on Jin’s face. It’s fine. It’s fine. Just a… misstep. It’s fine. 

Azula doesn’t have the time to date, anyway. 

She’s not hooking up at her other best friends’ wedding. 

She can feel the burning gaze of at least one of her friends from across the bonfire.

Jin clears her throat awkwardly. “Anyway,” she says, “So, uh, I’m actually- Well, I’m finished for the day, so I came over here to say goodbye.” 

“Oh,” Azula says, and even to herself she sounds disappointed. Spirits what is _in_ the sake Suki had served? “I mean, yes, of course. You should… go. Thank you, for your work, today.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

Have they always been this awkward?

Jin goes to leave,but she’s only turned away half a second, before she’s turning back to Azula. Perhaps she’s been emboldened by the sake as well. “Listen,” she says, “I know you have my work number, but if you’re ever in need of me, as a friend or if there’s like, a wedding crisis or… anything…” She hesitates, before pulling Azula’s hand towards herself, and scribbling digits on the back of it with her ballpoint pen. “My personal number… just in case.”

_Just in case._

Azula's going to murder her brother. 

It's not a new feeling.

All her life, she's been one step away from him pushing her over the edge till she finds herself an only child. When he comes to her, the day after getting engaged to Sokka, she really thinks she might finally do it. He _knows_ , he absolutely one hundred thousand percent _knows,_ that two months is not a reasonable amount of time for her to plan a wedding in. Certainly not the kind he and Sokka want. She's half tempted to refuse his request. But then he gives her that Look.

The puppy dog, wide-eyed, look, that always used to work on mother but unequivocally Does Not work on Azula.

It doesn't. 

She bills him double.

🌸

It doesn’t get any less stressful on the day. Everything is determined to go wrong. And Zuko won’t stop fucking _hovering,_ even as she shoots him her most aggressive glare. In the end it takes the sharp, pin-prick points of her manicure digging into his arm as she turns him and shoves him bodily back in the direction of the guests he is supposed to be mingling with before he leaves her alone to deal with the problems with the florist, the caterer, and the band. 

Why couldn’t he have had a simple wedding?

She had thought Sokka would be the one micromanaging everything but Katara is some kind of miracle worker that has managed to keep him in his dressing room while everything gets set up for the ceremony. Sokka, after all, had been the one insisting on all the specific little details that are currently driving her up the wall. It had also significantly driven the cost of their wedding up, but if Zuko’s spending the money he got from their waste-of-space father to have the most extravagant wedding he can to the man of his dreams… who’s Azula to begrudge him?

Still, it would help if just _one_ thing was going right. She could do without the florist mixing up pansies and peonies, and the caterer informing her that he’s going to be half an hour late, actually. She’s tapping her phone furiously, wishing for some kind of intervention, just one thing to happen without another fire starting-

“Azula?”

Zuko likes to tell her, in both bitterness and sincerity depending on his mood, that she is blessed by the spirits. Being a child prodigy, Azula didn’t used to have problems believing him. When her life got more… difficult, she struggled. 

When she looks up to see Jin, fully decked in the formal attire that suits a wedding like her brother wants, with her camera bag balanced on her hip and a kind, soft expression on her face, she thinks for the first time in _years_ that it might be true. 

“Jin,” she breathes, and the smile that spreads on her face is unconscious. “You’re here.” 

Jin laughs, a little awkwardly, and rubs the back of her neck. “I mean… you did hire me.” 

Internally, Azula curses herself and if she were a lesser woman she’d probably blush but she’s _Azula_ so she manages to pull it off as cool and casual and not like she’s flustered out of her mind. _Damn her stupid brother and his stupid wedding._

“I just meant thank the spirits there’s still one person left in the wedding business capable of doing their job,” she says, sniffing derisively.

Jin looks puzzled. “Stressful morning?”

“Something like that.” She brushes a hand over her perfectly styled hair, pushing back the one strand that always manages to fall out of place, before rearranging her face into a smile for Jin. "I'll show you where to go, maybe by the time I get back the caterers will finally be here."

They set off at a pace down the hall. Azula’s heels clicking at the floor, and the staff brushing out of the way for her. At least she’s retained some of her authority and fearsome reputation, even in the wake of everything in the known universe going wrong.

Everything except Jin, apparently.

“Thank you for doing this," Azula says again, even though she'd never _usually_ repeat a professional thank you. The stress must be getting to her.

“It’s no problem, I had the availability.”

“Yes, well,” Azula sighs, “You were another of my brother’s very specific requests.” 

“Was I really?” When she looks up, Jin is giving her a strange look. Something seems to hang on the tip of her tongue, and there's a beat before Azula even realises they've stopped walking.

"Azula, listen-"

"Azula!" There's a shout from the other end of the hall. Jin and Azula both turn to see a practically frantic Yue standing there, with Toph looking a mix of guilty and nervous by her side. Azula grits her teeth. Oh _Agni,_ what now?

She turns, regrettably, to Jin. "Sorry, it's just down there. I have to go see what the idiots have done now."

"It's fine,"Jin says, but her expression is tight. Tighter than Azula has ever seen it. "Go deal with… whatever that is."

Azula's already halfway back down the corridor, when Jin's next, soft words float after her. 

_"Good luck!"_

🌸

By no small miracle, the wedding actually goes off with only the necessary amount of hitch. That is, her brother getting hitched to Sokka. Pouring tea for him with that dopey _I’ve-just-seen-the-cutest-turtleduck-ever_ smile on his face. The wedding ends up a harmonious mash of Water Tribe and Fire Nation, and perhaps that’s why it was such an ordeal for Azula to plan. The two existing in harmony is always such a rarity. 

But she watches her brother lean over to kiss his new husband on the cheek, from their little table up at the head of the crowd, and thinks if anyone can make it work it’s probably those two idiots. 

They’re the perfect amount of idiot for each other.

It’s a bigger wedding than she’s ever worked with Jin before, and while Azula sits beside her throughout the banquet, she eventually has to go take hundreds of photos for Zuko’s wedding album before they can have much of a conversation. Azula almost feels lonely, without her. They’ve been to so many weddings together, now. 

Azula watches her dip out the doorway, her brother and his husband in tow, and tries to keep the forlorn expression off her face.

“She’s rather lovely, is she not?”

Azula startles. Twisting round sharply at the sound of her uncle’s voice. Of course he’s here. It’s Zuko’s wedding. She finalised the guest list herself. She knew he was here. She’d just been… avoiding him. 

It takes a moment before she realises what he had just said. 

“Jin?”

“Is that the young lady’s name, I wasn’t sure. Zuko’s been a little too busy to introduce his poor uncle to all his guests.” 

“She’s the photographer.” 

“Yes, I know…" Iroh nods, "But Sokka tells me she was also quite specifically invited. And I heard from Miss Bei Fong you were quite fond of her yourself." 

_Damn Toph, the incorrigible gossip._

"I'm… She's very good at her job. I have a professional admiration for her."

"Of course, niece," Iroh nods sagely. Azula has always hated that knowing smile, even now as it creeps onto his face. "Of course."

🌸

It’s a long wedding. Day turns into night, and when the stress of the day finally dissipates, Azula gets a little share of the dancing, and as much interaction with her family as she’s capable of stomaching before she ducks out a side door. Heading to the cool night air of a balcony to take a moment for herself. 

It’s good to be mindful.

She’s happy for her brother - deep down, of course, but she is. He’s back in the reception room gazing at Sokka and looking utterly besotted, and that’s fine. It doesn’t bother her. Zuko’s always been a sap, of course  _ he’d  _ fall in love and get married and get his happy ending. Happy endings look different for everyone, though. For her brother that’s this big, extravagant wedding and for Azula it’s-

Behind her, someone clears their throat. 

“I finished for the day,” Jin says, when Azula turns. “Your brother says I’m welcome to stay longer, but I just thought I’d come say… hello. Before I head out.”

 _Oh_. Oh she’s leaving. 

And Azula has barely seen her. 

That’s fine. 

“Ah,” Azula says smoothly, “Well, hello. I hope you had a lovely time. Thank you for your work… as always.” 

“It was… lovely, that is.” Jin smiles at her, “You really outdid yourself this time, Azula. I think your brother’s going to be very happy.” 

“He better be.” 

Jin laughs at the way Azula even makes a wish for her brother’s lifelong happiness sound like a threat, before sticking her hand out. 

“So, I’ll see you at the next one, then?”

Azula takes it, nodding. “The next one.”

Jin’s small, warm hand wraps tightly around hers, and Azula’s breath hitches at the spark of contact between them. Glancing down to check that _no,_ she definitely _isn’t_ sparking electricity from her fingertips right now. When she looks up from their joined hands, Jin is looking intently at her. She’s so _close._ Azula can smell her perfume, like cherry blossoms across the small space between them, and she can see the exact moment when her lips curl into a smile. 

Not that Azula’s looking at her lips. 

Except that she _is._

And Jin’s looking at hers, breaking the gaze while her soft hand lingers around Azula’s. Thumb rubbing gently across her wrist and Azula watches it, unable to look Jin in the eye anymore. A green painted nail slides gently over the burn scar on Azula’s wrist, the one she got when she was fifteen, and she jolts. Pulling her hand back so suddenly that Jin recoils too. She says nothing, even as Azula’s gold eyes flash back up to hers. Wide, and a little apologetic for reasons she can’t explain to _Jin._

How can she explain that it’s been well over a year since she kissed _anyone?_ That she’d spent years convincing herself, letting her father convince her, that love was weakness. That she does the job she does as an act of rebellion in so many ways. How can she explain to this practical _stranger,_ this woman who doesn’t deserve Azula’s baggage, that there’s still a tiny part of her that doesn’t want to believe in love because she doesn’t believe she deserves it. 

Azula can’t say any of this. Jin's probably not even after _love,_ just because she's showing an interest. It's not that deep, by any stretch, but Azula lets it pull her back from the edge anyway.

The silence that falls instead of any kind of explanation is heavy.

“I, uhm, should be going,” Jin says, finally breaking it. “My ride is probably nearly here, so I’ll just...”

“Right,” Azula turns to lean on the balcony again. Her head is _reeling,_ and she can’t watch Jin just… walk away. “Of course.”

“You have my number.”

“I do.” 

“Right.”

“Right.”

“Goodbye, Azula.”

🌸

She kicks herself the next day, when she realises she never said goodbye back to Jin. Too surprised by the almost overwhelming urge to kiss her that she'd said absolutely nothing while she walked away. Azula spends the whole week following her brother's wedding scowling, and trying to find any reason to call her that won't be utterly transparent. She spends the week after that trying to convince herself what happened at the wedding didn’t mean anything. Stupid, stupid, _stupid._ Of course Jin isn't interested in _her_. By the time it hits a month after the wedding, Zuko is still on his honeymoon, and she has almost succeeded in putting the whole ordeal entirely from her mind. 

Then, the phone rings.

“You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon. And _I’m_ supposed to be enjoying my day off.” Azula says in a monotone, before her brother can even say anything, when she answers. “What’s the matter? You know I’m not a divorce planner, right? If something’s gone wrong in your marriage this early, you’re going to have to sort it out yourself.” 

“Ha, ha,” Zuko says dryly, “For your information we’re very happy. Ember Island is lovely-”

“Zuzu, I cannot express how much I _don’t want to hear about your honeymoon.”_

Somewhere in the background of the phone call, Sokka chuckles. 

“Right, sorry, I just…” Zuko hesitates, and Azula wonders what he can possibly have a problem saying. Her brother is a dumbass, but he’s far from shy. “The wedding photos came through.”

Oh. 

_Oh._

“And?” Azula says, her voice staying neutral because she refuses to let it do anything else. “Is there a problem with them?”

Sokka’s laughter sounds again. 

“...No,” her brother says, “No, they’re really lovely, actually. 

“Then what?”

“Listen, Zula, I’m just going to send you a few, okay. Check your email.” She can almost hear his eye-roll. As if Azula ever does anything _but_ check her emails. “Don’t work too hard. And uhm… maybe, uh, shoot your shot?”

She frowns suddenly, and Sokka’s laughter has raised to a cackle now. 

“Zuko, what-”

“Okay, love you, bye!” 

The dial tone rings in her ear as her brother, her _stupid, dumbass, stress-inducing_ brother, hangs up on her to get back to his stupidly long honeymoon.

Sure enough there's a single email, with attachments, waiting in her inbox.

Zuko has sent her a very small selection of snapshots from his wedding, but in that moment Azula knows seeing them that first time, understanding what they mean, will stay with her for the rest of her life. Considering she had barely seen Jin at the wedding, Jin certainly seems to have seen a lot of her.

First: a candid from the ceremony. Azula’s mouth open in a wide, smiling, laugh as Sokka affirmed his love for Zuko with his ridiculous vows and Zuko nearly knocked the teapot over when he reached for his hands. That’s not happening in the photo, but Azula knows she was still too stressed at that point in the day for her to have looked that happy, that relaxed, about anything else. 

Second: Azula on the dancefloor, with Kiyi standing barefoot on her feet. The both of them laughing as Azula spun them around. There’s a slight motion blur to the image, but once again this only serves to soften all of Azula’s sharp edges. 

She hadn’t known Jin was even in the room when this happened.

She hadn’t realised anyone, let alone Jin, had noticed the rare, happy moment she had with her little sister.

Third: Azula, leaning against the balcony. The low curve of her dress dipping in at the base of her spine. Starlight in her hair and a flute of sparkling wine hanging in her hands. She has her eyes closed, her head tilted back. The only word for the feeling that comes with the picture is… _serenity._ The moon shining down on her from just out of shot as Azula finally found her moment of peace.

Just seconds before Jin had come over to try and- 

_Spirits,_ had she really fucked this up?

There are more, and they’re all the same.

It’s a window to a side of herself that Azula never sees. Never when she’s alone. Never in the mirror. Certainly never when she’s around other people. She’s amazed that Jin has looked at her and found her to be so… soft. There’s something intricate, _beautiful_ , and worked into the set up of every photograph. Fuzzy around the edges. _Warm._

Zuko was a film major, she’s listened to enough of his stupid rants to know that framing a photo, editing a photo like that, it’s _romantic._

She tries to tell herself, almost desperately, that it’s because Jin’s a _wedding_ photographer. 

But at the same time, she’s intensely familiar with Jin’s photography at this point. She knows what the photographs she takes of guests _usually_ looks like. 

Azula has been pictured with utter reverence. 

A tiny vindictive part of her brain wonders if it’s just downright unprofessional, as if Jin hadn’t had every right to photograph her at her friends’ weddings. But then, loathe as she is to admit it… _maybe,_ just maybe, her brother is onto something. 

The contacts are up on her phone half out of reflex, and she scrolls down without really thinking about it, to the personal number Jin gave her months and months ago. So many weddings between now and then. So many moments and, apparently, so many photographs. She looks back at that first one again, as her thumb hesitates over Jin’s number. 

Even then. 

Did this mean something even then?

There’s only one way to find out.

Biting her lip, she presses the call button. Silence. Ringing. _Ringing…_

"Hello?"

"Jin... it's Azula."

  
  


Azula started her wedding planning business when she was twenty two. Every day, she met with chefs, and florists. Venue owners, and artisans… Photographers. In ten years she spent planning other people’s weddings, she’d almost never given thought to her own. Azula wasn’t the marrying type, she thought. Azula didn’t have the _time,_ she said. Azula didn’t believe in true love, or soulmates, or any of the stupid stories her mother tried to fill her head with. 

Five years after her brother’s wedding, Azula finds herself waiting at the head of a crowd. She finds herself pouring tea filled with promises, and holding hands, and smiling at a woman who managed to capture her beauty and warmth amongst crowds of happy people, and the true love of others. Brought it to life over the five years that ensued after that fateful phone call through utter devotion.

Azula might not believe in soulmates, but when she marries Jin, she realises it might not matter whether she believes or not. She fell in love in spite of those beliefs. 

And Jin loves her either way.

**Author's Note:**

> is anyone in character here? No. do i care? Also no. Write what you like, lads xoxo 
> 
> (thank you shen for the pun)


End file.
